rhhays

Comment history

Dozer, thank you for the interest. As the article stated, I am the Litigation Counsel for the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts. I am not the General Counsel for the Board. I was hired by the members of the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts and our Executive Director and I serve at their pleasure.

To address my rank while on Active Duty, I initially was appointed as a USAF JAG through the direct appointment program in October of 2006. All USAF JAGs who are direct appointees are initially appointed as 1st Lieutenants and at six months of time in service at the rank of 1st Lieutenant, are promoted to Captain. This was how I was promoted to Captain in April of 2007.

The time that a JAG Officer is required to be a Captain before they are eligible to promote to Major is determined by the year group they are initially promoted to Captain and the projected number of vacancies there will be created by current Majors promoting or separating. By statute, there are a limited number of officers at any given rank in each of the services. The Air Force then creates a zone for promotion. Right now that is around six to seven years. My year group who is still on Active Duty is going to be meeting their first promotion board this year or early next year. While on Active Duty I did not have the time in grade to meet a promotion board; therefore, I was not promoted while on Active Duty. If you would like more information about the promotion system of the USAF please see USAF Personnel Center website at: http://www.afpc.af.mil/index.asp.

I separated from Active Duty through the Palace Chase program that allowed me to transfer directly from the Active Duty to the Kansas Air National Guard. As biographical information: I am currently a Kansas Air National Guard JAG Officer and serve as the Deputy Staff Judge Advocate for the 190th Air Refueling Wing at Forbes Field, Topeka, Kansas. In October of 2012, I met my first Kansas Air National Guard promotion board and was picked up for Major. In the National Guard we have another step to do before we pin on our new rank and that is to get federal recognition of our promotions. That process takes four to six months from the time our promotion board meets and picks someone up for a new rank. My federal recognition process has been completed and is currently awaiting the Secretary of Defense signature. The Secretary does those promotions in batches and promotees from all states in the months of September, October, and November are awaiting this signature. It is planned that I will pin on Major here in the next couple of months.

First and foremost, this project should have gone to the residents of Lawrence for a vote. That would have enabled us to ensure the majority of the citizens want it, provide their buy in, and provide an idea of the number of people who want to use the new rec center.

Since it does not look like the residents are going to be given an option to vote for this project, the City Commission needs to require the entire project's plans and contracts to be made public, so the residents of Lawrence can review the entire project and then be able to provide their Commissioners with input on how they would like to see this project implemented. It is essential for a City Commissioner to enable their constituents to become informed about every aspect of a project their city is involved in. This is done by complete transparency of the entire project.

If elected to the City Commission, I pledge to be committed to transparency so my fellow residents can review the entire project as a whole to provide me their opinion as to whether the city should go forward with a project. Then I pledge to advocate for that opinion.

Representative government is based upon the idea that those who are being represented can become informed about their government’s proposed activities so they can then convey their informed opinions to those who they have entrusted to represent them in government, their elected officials.

One of the reasons I choose to put my name in the ring to become a city commissioner is because of this very situation. I believe we need complete transparency in government. When it comes to government funds, it is the citizens who are going to ultimately pay for the expenditure and they deserve to know exactly how their money is going to be spent.

While the idea for Rock Chalk Park may good, the method in which it has come about is problematic. Essentially no bid contracts and tax abatements for “for-profit entities” needs to be highly scrutinized to ensure that it is in the best interest for the taxpayers and not a windfall for those who are in a position to benefit from their enactment. This also includes a complete transparent process in which the taxpayers have access to the planning and enactment of the plan. There seems to be a lot of questions without a lot of answers. This should not be the case.

A project this large with a significant impact to the finances of the city over a long period of time should be completed in a systematic process that is well thought out and not hurried in anyway. To ensure the taxpayers want this project, the current City Commission should wait to sign off on any more actions until after the new Commissioners are sworn in. Let the people speak with their votes and allow them to determine whether they want this project to go forward as it has now been envisioned.

Thank you for the kind comments. I am quite looking forward to having the opportunity to discussing all of the issues with my fellow Lawrence residents. I have a Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/#!/HaysForCommissioner where I plan on discussing the issues that Lawrence is currently facing. I also have a website at www.reesehays.com that you can also find more information about my campaign.